Prediabetes is when your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.
Basically testing your blood sugar levels is the best way to detect if you have prediabetes. However, not everyone gets the blood sugar levels checked all that often. Unless you’re going to the doctor for a check up, most people don’t even have prediabetes on their radar.
This is why it’s important to know the symptoms of prediabetes as well as the risk factors of prediabetes, so that you can analyze whether you should go see your doctor for a blood sugar test or if you should start rethinking some of your lifestyle choices.
Now these 5 symptoms that I’m about to share with you are going to seem usual…
The 5 Easily Undetectable Symptoms of Prediabetes are:
#1 You’re thirsty all the time
#2 You’re peeing a lot
#3 You’re always hungry
#4 You’re always tired
#5 You occasionally have blurry vision
But let’s face it, you can very easily have one or more of these symptoms for many other reasons other than prediabetes, right?
There are 90 million people in the US alone who are living with prediabetes, and the vast majority of them don’t even know it because the symptoms of prediabetes aren’t so obvious.
So that’s why it’s important to know the risk factors, in addition to these five symptoms of prediabetes, so that you can properly assess your current situation without having to go to the doctor.
Top 5 Risk Factors That For Prediabetes (you need to know!)
There are several risk factors that exist out there, but I’m going to share with you the top 5 that you need to know about.
Let’s start with the 2 risk factors that are out of your control… and they are…
#1 Your Family History
Most people know if they have a family history of Type 2 diabetes. I myself have 8 people who have some form of diabetes.
#2 Your Ethnicity
Unfortunately if you are African American, Native American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and Asian American, your risk of developing prediabetes is also higher.
[Now for the 3 major risk factors that you can actually do something about…]
#3 Your Diet
Think about your diet. What kind of food do you feed yourself with? Is it mostly processed & refined foods? Do you eat a lot of meat? Do you eat a lot of vegetables? What kind of relationship with food do you have? Do you often overeat or binge eat, and when you do, is it healthy foods, or not so healthy foods?
Now, this is not an opportunity for you to feel ashamed or guilty of your diet, it’s an opportunity for you to bring awareness to your own reality about the food you put in your body.
#4 Your Stress Levels
How much of your day involves a lot of stress? How often are you able to just slow down and stop for even just a few minutes? Do you feel like your nervous system is constantly on high alert 24/7?
When you are stressed out, you release the stress hormone called cortisol, which can increase your blood sugar levels unnaturally, and can contribute to the development of prediabetes. So if you’re often feeling stressed, then this is no bueno!
Not to mention, the older we get, the more responsibilities we have, which means the more stress we have. And typically the older we get, the less active we are, which is a fantastic strategy to managing stress levels. So if you find yourself often stressed and anxious, then you’re risk of developing prediabetes is higher.
#5 Your Overall Health
Health issues that directly affect your metabolism. Things like having excessive fat on your body, specifically your mid-section, high blood pressure or high levels of LDL cholesterol, and low levels of HDL cholesterol.
For women, if you’ve had gestational diabetes when they gave birth, or if they are living with PCOS, your risk of prediabetes increases as well.
Now what?
So if you’re reading this and saying to yourself, “Shit, I tick a lot of those boxes.”
There is no need to panic.
What you’re doing right now is creating mental awareness of your body, and your health. This alone is more powerful than any diagnosis that a doctor could give you. However, If you want to know for sure, you can certainly go see your doctor to get some blood tests done.
Although, the reality is, deep down you already know whether or not there are some areas of your life that you could start making positive healthy changes with…. Like your diet… stress levels… or activity levels…
And if that’s the case… then you don’t need to go see your doctor and have them tell you what you already know. You can easily see a dramatic shift in some of these symptoms of prediabetes and reduce your risk factors without needing to hear from your doctor.
The solution to living a sustainable healthy lifestyle and reversing the potential onset of prediabetes, is the same.
If you’re curious to learn more on how you can get healthy and reverse prediabetes, I invite you to watch the 40-minute workshop that we’ve put together for you to learn how you can reverse prediabetes.